ROYAL Mail has revealed a major shake up to its delivery service withplans toramp up its use of postal drones.
The postal giant said it aims to provider a faster and more convenient service to hard-to-reach areas of the country with robo-posties.
Currently, deliveries to remote places like the Isles of Scilly and the Shetlands are carried out by ferries and regular aircrafts.
But Royal Mail is planning to introduce 200 drones, or Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), across 50 postal routes in partnership with Windracers, a drones company.
Each UAV has a 10ft wingspan and resembles a giant model aeroplane, while operating entirely on auto-pilot.
It comes after the firm launched a trial of the service back in October in the Orkney Islands.
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The plans are subject to Civil Aviation Authority approval, but will be integrated over the next three years if given the go ahead.
Royal Mail said it would reduce the demand for other transportation methods and lower carbon emissions.
Behind the scenes, four trials have taken place over the last 18 months.
And drones managed to carry up to 100kg of mail on two daily return flights in these tests.
On arrival, the mail is then taken to a local branch and delivered to customers by a postie.
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Eventually, Royal Mail hopes to use 500 drones to span the entire country.
Simon Thompson, CEO at Royal Mail, said: “On time delivery regardless of our customers location or the weather, whilst protecting our environment is our goal.
"Even though we go everywhere, Royal Mail already has the lowest CO2 emissions per parcel delivered, this initiative will help reduce our emissions even further.”
While, Stephen Wright, chairman at Windracers Group, said: “We're truly delighted to be working with Royal Mail on this ambitious and pioneering deployment of autonomous aircraft.
"It puts the UK firmly at the forefront of this exciting sector.”
One person took to Twitter to celebrate the news, tweeting: "This could be the long-awaited big breakthrough drones need."
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